The Undercut Is Out — Early Access Starts Now
It is 09:00 CEST on Wednesday, September 3. The Undercut is out. Early Access starts now, on Steam, at $14.99 with –12% for the first seven days.
Early Access opens on build 0.5.4 — a bugix update addressing reports from the last week of testing.
Thank you !
Most of 0.5.4 came from bug reports. Demo players, alpha players, testers running early builds on hardware and setups I do not have. Thank you. That work happens on the Discord — bug reports, save files, balance discussion, modding.
⭐ 0.5.4 — What Shipped With Launch
Displays & Performance
High-refresh and high-resolution screens supported properly.
Resolution picker patched.
Fixed: crash on exit on Windows.
Race Weekend
Fixed: cars weaved through corners on hand-traced circuits.
Fixed: team logos in the timing tower showed scattered fragments.
Fixed: lap counter vanished behind pit-wall buttons at raised HUD scale.
Fixed: qualifying run plan didn't scroll with triggers.
Fixed: simulated practice reported incidents against the wrong driver.
Fixed: minimap position numbers drawn upside down in Quick Race.
Career & World
Driver market rebalanced.
Car performance reads the way it reads. The weakest factory no longer displays as zero, and development room follows the factory instead of contradicting it.
Sponsors shared across disciplines — a brand can back a single-seater, a touring car and a GT at once, from a catalogue roughly 40% larger.
Fixed: a sponsor secured at 100% could still be taken by an AI team.
Scouting produces three times the work units per level.
Prize money up 20%.
AI teams can no longer rebuild or shed facilities between two races. They invest at the rollover, like you.
Circuit pool is a choice: hand-curated layouts or the legacy procedural generator, for new careers.
Controller (Steam Deck)
Selection ring takes any stick or D-pad. It listened to the right stick alone — nothing could be selected on the Deck's default template.
Tabs step in drawn order, bumpers no longer reversed.
Weekend repair screen takes Start to continue; it had no binding at all.
Tutorial
Walkthrough opens on the pre-season instead of touring all twenty sidebar apps first.
New guides: Private Testing tab, end-of-turn note.
Fixed: weekend loadout and run-plan guides never appeared.
Sarah's voice re-recorded for every changed line, and seven that had never been recorded.
Modding & Languages
Fixed: dropping a mod pack in mods/ applied it to every new career, including unmodded ones.
English-only translation template for machine translation ships with the language editor.
🏁 This Is Early Access, and I Mean It
The game you are downloading is a full career manager: a race weekend from free practice to flag, eleven series racing in one world, ~400 drivers with hidden traits and real career arcs, R&D, sponsors, contracts, scouting, modding tools, six languages, gamepad and Steam Deck support. It is also not finished, and I would rather say so on day one than have you discover it on day three. There is polish left in the UI, balance passes left in the economy, and rough edges you will find before I do. How to help: use the in-game bug report, or bring it to the Discord. A save file attached to a report is worth ten descriptions.
🗺️ What Comes After Launch
Five headline updates, each roughly 30 to 45 days apart:
Weather & Setup — dynamic weather, rain, reworked setup system.
Era Update — tech tree from the early '90s onward, engine development overhaul.
Playable Touring Car Series — different cars, different budgets, different politics.
Playable GT Series — endurance thinking, multi-class traffic.
Multiplayer — manage against people instead of a simulation.
Every update is free for Early Access owners. Version 1.0 is the destination, not a separate purchase.
Lights Out
$14.99, –12% for the first seven days. Save compatibility from 0.5.3 forward is something I intend to protect. Twenty devlogs, a demo and an alpha got the game to this line. It is the start of the season, not the end of it. See you on the pit wall. Buy The Undercut: Racing Manager · Join Discord